To:ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI

Written:Written later than July 11, 1915Published:First published in 1924 inLenin Miscellany II.

      Sent from Sörenberg (Switzerland) to Christiania (Oslo).

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1976],

      Moscow,Volume 35,

      pages193-194.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

DearComrade,

Thequestion of a conference of the “Left” is going ahead.
There has already been a firstVorkonferenz,[3]and a second,
decisive one, will be heldshortly. It is extremely important
to draw in the Left Swedes (Höglund) and the Norwegians.

Bekind enough to write
(1) whether we are in agreement
with you (or you with the C.C.), if not, wherein we differ,
and
(2) whether you will undertake to draw in the “Left”
Scandinavians.

Ad1. You know our position fromSotsial-Demokrat. In
Russian affairs we shallnotbe for unity with the Chkheidze
group[4](which Trotsky, and the O.C., and Plekhanov,
and Co. want: seeThe War), because this is a cover-up and
defence ofNashe Dyelo. In international affairs we shallnotbe for rapprochement with Haase-Bernstein-Kautsky
(forin practicethey want unity with the Südekums and to
shield them, they want to get away with Left phrases and
to change nothing in the old rotten party). We cannot
stand for thewatchwordof peace, because we consider it
supremely muddled, pacifist, petty-bourgeois, helping the
governments (they now want to be with one hand “for
peace”, in order to climb out of their difficulties) and
obstructing the revolutionary struggle.

Inour opinion, the Left should make a common
declarationof principle(1) unquestionably condemning the
social-chauvinists and opportunists,
(2) giving a programme
of revolutionary action (whether to say civil war or
revolutionary mass action, is not so important),
(3) against thewatchword of “defence of the fatherland”, etc. A
declaration of principle by the “Left”, in the name of several
countries, would have agiganticsignificance (of course, not in
the spirit of the Zetkin philistinism which she got adopted
at the Women’s
Conference[5]at Berne; Zetkinevadedthe
question of condemning social-chauvinism!! out of a desire
for “peace” with the Südekums+Kautsky??).

Ifyou are not in agreement with these ladies, drop us
a line straightaway.

Ifyou are in agreement, do take on the translation of
(1) the manifesto of the Central Committee (No. 33 ofSotsial-Demokrat)[1]and
(2) the Berne resolutions (No. 40
ofSotsial-Demokrat)[2]into Swedish and Norwegian, and
get in touch with Höglund—do they agree to prepare acommondeclaration (or resolution) on such a basis (naturally
we shall not quarrel over details)?Particularspeed with
this is necessary.

Andso I await your reply.

Everygood wish,Yours,Lenin

[1]Seepresent edition, Vol. 21, pp. 25–34.—Ed.

[2]Ibid.,pp. 158–64.—Ed.

[3]Vorkonferenz—preparatory conference for the first
International Socialist Conference (Zimmerwald) held in Berne on July 11,
1915.

[4]TheMenshevik group in the Fourth Duma.

[5]TheInternational Women’s Socialist Conferenceconcerning the
attitude to be adopted towards the war was held on March 26–28, 1915 in
Berne. See Lenin’s article “On the Struggle Against Social-Chauvinism”
(present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 199–203).